Welcome to this digital edition of Life Insurance International that focuses on the latest compliance, regulation and risk management developments affecting insurers worldwide.

Striking the right balance between regulatory demands, rising costs and customer centricity is a major challenge for the global life and health insurance and reinsurance industry now.

For example, the upcoming GDPR data regulation, the Insurance Distribution Directive and PRIIPs regulation will significantly affect business models.

And then of course, there’s Brexit to contend with.

That’s why with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) going into effect on May 25, 2018, insurance and reinsurance players must take steps to understand how the regulation will affect them.

The GDPR will be enforced starting 25 May 2018 and will apply to those collecting, storing or using the personal data of the residents of the European Union’s 28 member states.

As a report by McAfee underlines why GDPR matters. It says: “The regulation changes requirements around protecting the personally identifiable information of over 500 million people, and occupies the minds of anyone around the world concerned with data protection.”

Yet, it’s alarming that a recent survey published by SAS has revealed that only 45% of businesses actually have a structured plan for compliance, and over half (58%) still do not fully understand the full consequences of non-compliance in the face of the new regulation – a mere four per cent of annual global turnover.

Ten years after the global financial crisis, this digital edition of LII examines how things have changed in insurance sector ten years on.

Assessing the global financial crisis’s impact on the general and life insurance sector, GlobalData Financial Services says above all, the fallout from the financial crisis has driven a far more disciplined business model in the last decade within the general insurance industry – with players adapting to what has often been referred to as the “new normal”.

GlobalData Financial Services also notes that the financial crisis stands as a precursor to the Solvency II regime which has itself driven mergers, acquisitions, a number of market exits and the need for insurers to seek diversification of business.